On the Street

Images of the Week 07.22.12

July 22, 2012 Artists, Brooklyn, Manhattan, NYC, On the Street

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, featuring Aiko, Cost, KAWS, Leon Reid IV, Mint & Serf, Nick Walker, Phlegm, Poster Boy, REVS, Swampy, and Wing.

We start off the review with this pretty amazing and magical new installation by Street Artist Phlegm in a children’s playground at the Fulton housing project. He also hit a gate and a quick wall while he was in New York, but this series will be taking kids on rides through their imaginations for a few years to come.

Phlegm (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jetsonorama. Donté. Click on the link at the bottom of this posting to see more images of Jetsonorama at the Navajo. (photo © Jetsonorama)

WING (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mint & Serf (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swampy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kaws (photo © Jaime Rojo)

COST . REVS (photo © Jaime Rojo)

COST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nick Walker (photo © Jaime Rojo)

AIKO. Detail of her installation at the Houston Wall. For process shots and full completed wall click on the link at the bottom. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Leon Reid IV and Poster Boy collaboration for Showpaper. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the full documentation of AIKO getting up on the Houston Wall.

Click here to visit Jetsonorama’s life with the Navajo through images and words.

Phlegm Goes Fishing in Ireland

July 19, 2012 Artists, Bantry, Ireland, On the Street

On his recent trip to Bantry, West Cork, Ireland Street Artist Phlegm took advantage of a brief dry interlude, got his painting materials out, rolled up his sleeves and set his magical thinking free onto a couple of walls. Unbothered by the punishing rays of the sun, the palette of black and white emulated the greyness of the days.

Phlegm “Salmon” (photo © Phlegm)

Phlegm’s ingenious use of scale and precisely rough rendering of imagination can make you feel good about daydreaming. With the same determination as a kids building intricate sand castles and moats on the beach in the summer, you can watch Phlegm render this giant submarine-fish and imagine how a day can evaporate without notice.

Here’s a video of his work on both walls by Colm Rooney courtesy of One Color/Conor Mahon;

Phlegm under a grey sky. (still from video by One Color/Conor Mahon © Phlegm)

Phlegm and the innerworkings of the salmon. (still from video by One Color/Conor Mahon © Phlegm)

Phlegm creates a massive world of towns and hamlets with a brush and a small pot of paint. (still from video by One Color/Conor Mahon © Phlegm)

To see process photos of Phlegm getting up in Bantry go to his site at:

http://www.phlegmcomicnews.blogspot.com/2012/06/bantry-west-cork-ireland.html

AND stay tuned to BSA for more images of Phlegm big wall in NYC very soon.

Pulling Strings in Berlin; “Heinrich” The Public Marionette

July 18, 2012 Artists, Berlin, Germany, On the Street

“All of us are like marionettes,” says Ben, “Somebody pulls our strings and we move.”

Various & Gould “Heinrich” (photo © V & G)

Various and Gould can’t be sure that their own strings didn’t get pulled last week when they installed on the street a life-sized replica of one half of this German Street Art duo. Hanging from the beams below a train station in Berlin-Kreuzberg, the cardboard puppet named “Heinrich” had gone on display two or three times indoors before but the artists wanted to see how he would be received by passersby in the public sphere.

“Before we were even done installing people showed up and started to play intuitively with it by pulling the strings,” they told us as they described their surprise at what would become a 6-day experience.

Various & Gould “Heinrich” (photo © Studio Nura)

People from all walks of life and ages took interest in this naked man hanging out near the bicycles, and many took his movements into their own hands. The artists visited the site regularly to observe the interactions, and often found that a mirroring of movements, a sort of dance, took place. “Not only was the marionette being moved but also the people moved themselves. Some just pulled one of the chords briefly, while others would get totally into it, grabbing the strings with both of their hands, experimenting with various sequences of movements.” Their lifeless creation somehow brought the street to life, and vice versa.

Various & Gould “Heinrich” (photo © Studio Nura)

Sometimes there was damage to Heinrich that they needed to repair when visiting him first thing in the morning, and he suffered one violent episode that left his arms dangling by themselves from the hooks in the ceiling above. But he also gained a protective crew of friends who call this area home, including the 40-ish slim musician named Ben with a bandaged hand of his own. Drinking coffee or beer with his buddies all day, Ben took on a protective air toward the puppet, instructing people how to use the strings. To their amazement, the artists often found that their creation had been repaired; a torn-off foot was reattached with a rubber band and a shoulder joint was rejuvenated with an empty cigarette box and some adhesive tape.

Various & Gould “Heinrich” (photo © V & G)

What began as a fun experiment with a puppet that they were ready to part with eventually transformed into a bonding experience they had not predicted. Watching individuals interact with the strings became like poetry. “It looked like two marionettes facing each other with both being joined by the same chords,” they say. Finally one day Various and Gould found that Heinrich had been cut down from his strings and taken away, perhaps to someone’s home.

For their experience, they cannot help but think of the people they met, and what Ben said about everyone being a marionette. Public artists know of course that public art will always be subject to the whims of the public. What they didn’t expect was to find that their puppet project might have had some heart strings attached to it.

Various & Gould “Heinrich” (photo © V & G)

Various & Gould “Heinrich” (photo © Lucky Cat)

Ben and Heinrich, Various & Gould (photo © Various and Gould)

Various & Gould “Heinrich” (photo © Lucky Cat)

Various & Gould “Heinrich” (photo © Studio Nura)

The artists wish to thank Lucky Cat and Studio Nura for their photography, support and help with this project.

“Heinrich”, a life-sized marionette by Various & Gould
Installed at Goerlitzer Bahnhof in Berlin-Kreuzberg on the 10th of July, 2012.

This article is also published on The Huffington Post

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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LUDO, Playmates, and Beesties in Paris

July 17, 2012 Artists, On the Street, Paris

Street Artist LUDO shows his active imagination is in full force with these new billboard takeovers in Paris that blend unusual themes with his ongoing fascination for insects and technology.

First are the insect playboys, appearing to merge a porno sensibility and animation 3-D rendering with the natural world. Since Summer is the season for insect love in the park perhaps the gentlemen bugs mind turns to centerfolds and multi-legged playmating?

LUDO (photo © LUDO)

The second installation, by way of tribute to the passing of rapper Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch is his nod to the 1986 Beastie Boys Album cover for “Licensed to Ill”. In LUDO’s version, the crashed plane is morphed into an insect chassis and rechristened “Beestie”.

LUDO (photo © LUDO)

Simian Media Works Presents: XCIA Street Art Project: Artists Edition. Book Launch. (Manhattan, NY)

July 16, 2012 Artists, Events, Gallery, Manhattan, NYC, On the Street

XCIA

Featuring prints and limited editions by Anthony Lister, ASVP, Chris Stain,

Clown Soldier, ENX, Fumero, Gaia, gilf!, Icy & Sot, Imminent Disaster, Joe Iurato,

Judith Supine, Know Hope, Labrona,

Miss Bugs, Other, Paul Insect, Sheryo, The Yok, Zero Cents and more

On view through August 15th

As street art gains in popularity among the contemporary art world, the unique relationship between the artists’ public and print work is often overlooked. In an attempt to reclaim public space, street artists apply repetition with a multiplicity of familiar aesthetics and imagery—allowing the anonymous artists to create an easily recognizable identity for themselves. Printmaking’s potential for reproduction and circulation offers an alternative vehicle to make their work accessible for the public. (Re)Print celebrates the connection found between these salient aspects of both street art and printmaking.

In conjunction with this event, Hendershot Gallery has invited a select group of artists to create new site-specific installations as part of (Re)Print’s growing underground street art project. Murals by the artists will be open to the public for the duration of the summer, however, the exact location will remain undisclosed—attempting to preserve the excitement experienced when one unexpectedly discovers a work of street art.

Aiko Flies At Night on The Houston Wall

July 16, 2012 Artists, Manhattan, NYC, On the Street

At Tony Goldman’s reception for Street Artist Aiko on Friday, the diminutive dynamo looked pretty smashing as she signed fresh Martha Cooper prints, despite smashing a wall till 4 am the same day. In fact Aiko was on a cherry picker every night last week as she methodically knocked out the candy-pink and purple pastiche of sexy stenciled ladies and butterflies across this nearly institutional wall that stands as an edificial link to Manhattan’s Street Art past.

Aiko (phot0 © Jaime Rojo)

With summer’s sun now scorching NYC during the day, beginning the job as the sun set over Gotham meant Aiko could avoid the brain-frying heat and study the detailed booklet of plans she had prepared for this high-profile wall that’s been hit by the likes of Haring, Scharf, and Fairey. During the day you might spend a third of the time answering questions from inquisitive New Yorkers who want to know exactly what the hell is going on, but at 3 am on Wednesday morning it’s only sanitation workers, dog walkers and the occasional drunken revelers.

Ironically, while many Street Artists have worked anonymously under cover of night, in this case hitting a wall means you’re more public than ever before. For Aiko, it’s a perfect opportunity to bring her fully female flurry of power to “represent” in a scene that has a preponderance of dudes. For New Yorkers, this is another free Street Art show that runs 24/7 all summer long.

Aiko (phot0 © Jaime Rojo)

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Images of the Week 07.15.12

July 15, 2012 Artists, On the Street

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Concrete Jungle, Edaurdo Jones, El Sol 25, Know Hope, Love Me, Matteo Efrem Rossi, Peeta, Phlegm, QRST, Rambo, Royce Bannon, Russell King, Shok 1, The Weird, Venezia, WAS, Swil and Willow.

Street Artist Phlegm from Sheffield (GB) was passing through New York this week and took a little time to add his character to a wall that Know Hope from Tel-Aviv painted in early March in NYC. Says Phlegm, “I couldn’t pass the opportunity to add one of my characters giving his a helping hand.” Our geography skills aren’t too strong but this work connects 3 continents, doesn’t it? This wall was produced by Keith Schweitzer of MaNY Projects in conjunction with Fourth Arts Block (FAB). (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Peeta takes the 3-D to 4 for Atelier Eventi-Arte-Venezia, Forte Margera (VE), (photo © Matteo Efrem Rossi)

Love Me, Rambo, and the JMZ line on the Brooklyn side yo. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 on the return (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

WAS (photo © Jaime Rojo)

SHOK 1 evokes x-ray images with this can technique in a East London wall arranged by Global Street Art (photo © SHOK 1)

Swil with a lil’ help from Willow (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Weird slices through Brooklyn thanks to Laura (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Concrete Jungle from Russia finished this monochromatic forest in Bushwick. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Concrete Jungle. Deatail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

See Concrete Jungle from Russia to Bushwick

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Royce Bannon and Russell King (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST is going strong, despite a broken heart. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Oh, Word? Edaurdo Jones (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Rae In Chicago

July 14, 2012 Artists, Chicago, On the Street

Street Artist Rae from the BK tied a knot in the busted fanbelt of his heavily rusted ’83 Camaro with no A/C and made a long hot trip to Chicago last week to visit Nick and Seth at Pawnworks – and to hit up some walls. Whether it’s a scrapyard sculpture or multicolored mural, Rae’s stiff and speckled street dudes are often animated and gesticulating about something very important – but you might not know exactly what. Dapper, direct, and a bit childlike, you have to show them respect because they remind you of your Uncle Eugene who always starts out normal at the family reunion but ends up sitting at a picnic table under an oak tree by himself putting egg salad in his hair and talking about quarter-horse racing or the Republicans or Rupert Murdoch.

RAE (photo © courtesy of Pawn Works Gallery)

“We were very excited to be able to host Rae in Chicago to do some work as part of an on-going mural project in the Historic Pilsen neighborhood on the Southside of Chicago,” says Nick Marzullo.

Pawnworks Gallery have been asked to participate on a neighborhood project working with the local alderman, The Mexican Museum of Art and The Chicago Urban Art Society and other partners to beautify a stretch of wall in the Pilsen neighborhood. And there will be more to see first here on BSA. Says Nick, “Stay tuned for more as there is an array of amazing artists planned to come out to participate in the future”.

I had this dream that I was naked and rollerskating in the park. RAE (photo © courtesy of Pawn Works Gallery.

RAE (photo © courtesy of Pawn Works Gallery)

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Entes Y Pesimo Tour Europe

July 12, 2012 Artists, On the Street

Peruvian Street Artists Entes y Pesimo have been on a tour through much of Europe painting murals in Paris (France), Eindhoven (Netherlands) and Hamburg (Germany). Figurative and familial, their imagery borrows from more traditional graffiti and community mural styles and often depicts people sheltering and caring for one another.

Entes, Pesimo, Seth and Den. (photo © Entes y Pesimo)

Working together since 2000, the duo pioneered their brand of Street Art in Lima and belong to a larger group of artists in Peru who consider themselves graffiti activists. Thematically their work is influenced by social events, cultural and political, addressing issues like discrimination, racism, and the right to personal dignity.

Entes y Pesimo. Eindhoven, The Netherlands. (photo © Entes y Pesimo)

Entes, Pesimo. DJMC Crew (photo © Entes y Pesimo)

Entes, Pesimo. DJMC Crew. 93 Crew. Montry, France. (photo © Entes y Pesimo)

Entes y Pesimo. Super. DJMC Crew. Hamburg, Germany. (photo © Entes y Pesimo)

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Entes and Pesimo would especially like to thank Morne, Super, Paulina, Seth, Inti, Maun, Diana, and Nemiye for their help and support during this trip in Europe.

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Here’s a video of their visit to Buenos Aires last year where they painted the trailer of a man named Henry, who has lived for years in the street.

Color, Geometry and Pattern On The Streets

July 11, 2012 Kabul, On the Street

Art from the streets has been heralding a new eye-popping geometric disorder that can now fairly be called a movement. With roots in recent art history and the rhythms of the street, artists are giving themselves over to pungent color, pattern, grid inspired line, and a sharp edged abstraction. No one can say what has moved the conversation toward this aesthetic – it all mimics the repetitive patterns that are found in nature as well as the cool symmetries programmed by human industry. These modern alchemists from across the globe are somehow pumping the Street Art scene with an oxygen-rich supply of lifeblood and a variety of possible directions to explore.

An uncanny blending of the cans, both the graffiti tradition and the Street Art practice each find common ground to be a place where tagging and Pop irony all dissolve together into form and shape. On walls around cities where these two practices were once polarized, we’re seeing that everybody can drop their guard and just paint, bro.

In these images collected by photographer Jaime Rojo over the last couple of years, you can see elements of mid 20th century modernism, sci-fi fantasy, retro-futurism, imperfect folk patterning, and the distinct echoes of Wild Style. The common thread in this new discovery of graphic geometry is not just what it is, but as it pertains to art on the street, also what it’s not.

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Concrete Jungle from Russia to Bushwick

July 3, 2012 Artists, Brooklyn, NYC, On the Street

Feliks Mashkov and Vadim Gerasimenko are the Russian collective known as Concrete Jungle. The duo call Vladivostok their home and are visiting NYC with five other artists as part of CEC ArtsLink’s Global Art Lab program. Designed to support an international exchange of ideas and perspectives, the program involves communities and individuals in Central Asia and Russia. Susan Katz, the St. Petersburg based program director, invited BSA to meet with the visiting artists for an informal chat about Street Art in the US and the current New York scene.

Concrete Jungle employs methods and techniques seen in Street Art, public art, and commercial art and the two have collected a number of interior and exterior walls over the last few years with the same can-do D.I.Y. attitude that we see on the street today – with a detailed clean graphic finish. Feliks attended art school for five years and recently received his Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture. A 2007 graduate of the Vladivostok Art School with a specialization in teaching painting, Vadim is currently a student at the Far East Federal University in the Department of Graphic Design.

Feliks and Vadim, with the help of Brooklyn based Street Artist Specter, secured a wall in Bushwick as part of the Bushwick Five Points murals. BSA caught up with the artists as they were still at work on their wall. Here are some process shots of the 77% completed project as the two guys employ an acutely understated palette, crisply illustrated lines and natural curvilinear forms.

Visit Concrete Jungle site here: http://www.cjungle.com/main/

To learn more about CEC ArtsLink’s Global Art Lab program click here: http://www.cecartslink.org/

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El Sol 25 Returns with Wings

July 2, 2012 Artists, Brooklyn, NYC, On the Street

The summer sol is back in the Brooklyn sky and El Sol 25 is back in the streets of Brooklyn after an absence of how long, a year or so? Can’t remember exactly, but anyway there is a new crop of hand-painted collaged figurative characters up using his unmistakable style of mixing and matching sources, genders, races, cultures, and symbols. As a group the collection includes more carefully dimensioned rendering of limbs and textures, more relaxed flexibility in the forms, and more wings with which to fly. Here are four new pieces we found around the neighborhood for you to see.

El Sol 25 placed this new wheat-pasted piece on an old piece by Veng of RWK that had already been destroyed, apart from the circular frame. Seems kind of perfect, given the compositional balance of the multi-limbed form. Have to mention the 80’s era Michael Jackson jacket and skull and the third anniversary of his passing was last week on June 25th. Also next to this piece is the new collaboration by Veng and Chris of RWK with Gilf! (see yesterday’s Images of the Week.) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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